FAQ

What is the Center for Health and Economy?

The Center for Health and Economy (H&E) is a non-partisan research organization focused on providing accessible analysis on the outlook of the United States health care system. Led by nationally recognized economic, budget, and public policy experts, H&E uses microsimulation models and health economics literature to evaluate the effects of current and proposed health policy legislation, as well as provide new insight in the debate for better health care.

Who is involved with the Center for Health and Economy?

H&E has a board of qualified academics, respected as experts in their fields. Together, they possess a diverse set of views and a comprehensive library of research upon which H&E analyses are predicated. Short biographies on each of the H&E board members can be found here.

How is the Center for Health and Economy different from the Congressional Budget Office?

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is Congressionally mandated to provide impartial information to the Congress on budgetary and economic issues. In addition to multitude of other analytical responsibilities, CBO produces cost-estimates of proposed legislation and tabulates the budgetary impact of enacted legislation. For health care legislation, CBO analyses include estimates on the impact on the insured population.

In contrast, H&E is the culmination of a set of academic efforts supported by peer-reviewed works that seeks to bring new light to health care analyses. H&E is able to examine any innovative policy proposals in the public domain, and while H&E analyses contain a budgetary component, the primary focus is assessing the impact on the availability, cost, and quality of health insurance, as well as the resulting feedback into the efficacy of the American health care system. In addition to policy proposals, H&E frequently reports on relevant and dynamic health care issues including an annual report on the nation’s health insurance outlook.

How does the Center for Health and Economy analyze proposed health policy?

H&E maintains peer-reviewed, microsimulation models capable of analyzing and forecasting the outlook of different sectors of the United States health insurance market. Two models are currently employed in the reports and analyses produced by H&E—an under-65 model and a Medicare model.

What new insight does the Center for Health and Economy offer?

The national health care debate is largely focused on two primary concerns: the number of uninsured people and the cost of federal health care programs. H&E hopes to shift this discussion towards other important aspects of health care: the rising cost of insurance premiums, the quality of health insurance plans, access to necessary medical professionals, the efficiency of medical care, etc. H&E uses two metrics to help highlight these aspects of the health care system—the Medical Productivity Index and the Provider Access Index. More information on these indices can be found here .

What does the Center for Health and Economy produce?

The reports published by the H&E fall into the following general categories:

Health Insurance Market Forecasts

These forecasts include an annual report on the state of the health care system, as well as monthly reports examining specific populations of interest.

Health Care Policy Proposal Analyses

H&E is able to examine any innovative policy proposals in the public domain to assess the impact on the availability, cost, and quality of health insurance as well as the resulting feedback into the efficacy of the American health care system.

Brief Policy Reports

Shorter than full policy analyses, these policy briefs are narrow analyses of relatively minor policy reforms informed by microsimulation results.

Other Research

H&E is constantly conducting new research on important health care issues in an effort to provide relevant, detailed resources to policy makers.